diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index bab9421781..ed40a784ff 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 2.0.14:
+ * java.lang.AssertionError when reading saved cache (CASSANDRA-8740)
  * "disk full" when running cleanup (CASSANDRA-9036)
  * Make PasswordAuthenticator number of hashing rounds configurable (CASSANDRA-8085)
  * Lower logging level from ERROR to DEBUG when a scheduled schema pull
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/cache/AutoSavingCache.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/cache/AutoSavingCache.java
index 64234e2f27..987535f020 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/cache/AutoSavingCache.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/cache/AutoSavingCache.java
@@ -127,7 +127,8 @@ public class AutoSavingCache<K extends CacheKey, V> extends InstrumentingCache<K
                 for (Future<Pair<K, V>> future : futures)
                 {
                     Pair<K, V> entry = future.get();
-                    put(entry.left, entry.right);
+                    if (entry != null && entry.right != null)
+                    	put(entry.left, entry.right);
                 }
             }
             catch (Exception e)